[Dialogue] Lincoln Weeps

[Harry Wainwright]

Published on Tuesday, October 3, 2006 by CommonDreams.org
<http://www.commondreams.org>  

Lincoln Weeps 

by Bill Moyers 

 

Back in 1954, when I was a summer employee on Capitol Hill, I made my first
visit to the Lincoln Memorial. I have returned many times since, most
recently while I was in Washington filming for a documentary about how Tom
DeLay, Jack Abramoff, Ralph Reed and Grover Norquist, among others, turned
the conservative revolution into a racket-the biggest political scandal
since Watergate. 

If democracy can be said to have temples, the Lincoln Memorial is our most
sacred. You stand there silently contemplating the words that gave voice to
Lincoln's fierce determination to save the union-his resolve that
"government of, by, and for the people shall not perish from the earth." On
this latest visit, I was overcome by a sense of melancholy. Lincoln looks
out now on a city where those words are daily mocked. This is no longer his
city. And those people from all walks of life making their way up the steps
to pay their respect to the martyred president-it's not their city, either.
Or their government. This is an occupied city, a company town, and
government is a subservient subsidiary of richly endowed patrons. 

Once upon a time the House of Representatives was known as "the people's
house." No more. It belongs to K Street now. That's the address of the
lobbyists who swarm all over Capitol Hill. There are 65 lobbyists for every
member of Congress. They spend $200 million per month wining, dining and
seducing federal officials. Per month! 

Of course they're just doing their job. It's impossible to commit bribery,
legal or otherwise, unless someone's on the take, and with campaign costs
soaring, our politicians always have their hands out. One representative
confessed that members of Congress are the only people in the world expected
to take large amounts of money from strangers and then act as if it has no
effect on their behavior. This explains why Democrats are having a hard time
exploiting the culture of corruption embodied in the scandalous behavior of
DeLay and Abramoff. Democrats are themselves up to their necks in the
sludge. Just the other day one of the most powerful Democrats in the House
bragged to reporters about tapping "uncharted donor fields in the financial
industry"-reminding them, not so subtlety, of the possibility that after
November the majority leader just might be a Democrat. 

When it comes to selling influence, both parties have defined deviancy up,
and Tony Soprano himself couldn't get away with some of the things that pass
for business as usual in Washington. We have now learned that Jack Abramoff
had almost 500 contacts with the Bush White House over the three years
before his fall, and that Karl Rove and other presidential staff were
treated to his favors and often intervened on his behalf. So brazen a pirate
would have been forced to walk the plank long ago if Washington had not
thrown its moral compass overboard. 

Alas, despite all these disclosures, nothing is happening to clean up the
place. Just as the Republicans in charge of the House kept secret those
dirty emails sent to young pages by Rep. Mark Foley-a cover-up aimed at
getting them past the election and holding his seat for the party-they are
now trying to sweep the DeLay-Abramoff-Reed-and-Norquist scandals under the
rug until after Nov. 7, hoping the public at large doesn't notice that the
House is being run by Tom DeLay's team, minus DeLay. All the talk about
reform is placebo. 

The only way to counter the power of organized money is with organized and
outraged people. Believe me, what members of Congress fear most is a
grassroots movement that demands clean elections and an end to the buying
and selling of influence-or else! If we leave it to the powers that be to
clean up the mess that greed and chicanery have given us, we will wake up
one day with a real Frankenstein of a system-a monster worse than the one
created by Abramoff, DeLay and their cronies. By then it will be too late to
save Lincoln's hope for "government of, by, and for the people." 

Bill Moyers is a veteran television journalist for PBS and the president of
the Schumann Center for Media and Democracy. This week, Bill Moyers returns
to investigative journalism with MOYERS ON AMERICA, taking on crucial issues
facing our nation. Previews available at www.pbs.org/moyers. 

*	October 4, "Capitol Crimes" investigates the Abramoff lobbying
scandal, revealing the web of relationships, secret deals and political
manipulation and opening a disturbing window on the dark side of American
politics.
*	October 11, "Is God Green?" looks at the implications of a debate
among politically powerful conservative evangelical Christians over the
handling of the environment.
*	October 18 "The Net at Risk" reports on how mega-media corporations
could restrict the democratic possibilities of the Web's new future. 

###

 

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